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{{Short description|1914 Song by W. C. Handy}}
{{Short description|1914 Song by W. C. Handy}}
{{Infobox song
{{Infobox song
| name = The Saint Louis Blues<ref name=copy/>
| name = The Saint Louis Blues
| cover = St. Louis Blues cover.jpg
| cover = St. Louis Blues cover.jpg
| caption = Sheet music cover
| caption = Sheet music cover
⚫
| published = {{start date|1914|9|11}}<ref name=copy>{{cite book |last=Library of Congress. Copyright Office. |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1914 Musical Compositions Last Half of 1914 New Series Vol 9 Part 2 |url=http://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig92libr |publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off. |others=U.S. Copyright Office |date=1914}}</ref>
| written =
⚫
| published = {{start date|1914|9|11}}<br> [[W. C. Handy|Pace & Handy Music Co.]] Memphis, Tenn.<ref name=copy>{{cite book |last=Library of Congress. Copyright Office. |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1914 Musical Compositions Last Half of 1914 New Series Vol 9 Part 2 |url=http://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig92libr |publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off. |others=United States Copyright Office |date=1914}}</ref>
| type = single
| type = single
| artist = [[Bessie Smith]] with [[Louis Armstrong]], cornet
| artist = [[Bessie Smith]] with [[Louis Armstrong]], cornet
| album =
| EP =
| B-side = Cold in Hand Blues
| B-side = Cold in Hand Blues
| released = {{start date|1925|4|10}}
| released = {{start date|1925|4|10}}
⚫
| recorded = January 14, 1925<ref name="Russell">{{Cite book |first=Tony|last=Russell |date=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books |location=Dubai|page=12 |isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref>
| recorded = {{start date|1925|1|14}}<ref name="Russell"/>
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = [[Blues]]
| genre = [[Blues]]
| length = {{duration|m=2|s=46}}
| length = 2:46
| label = [[Columbia Records|Columbia 14064D]]
| label = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| writer = [[W. C. Handy]]
| writer = [[W. C. Handy]]
| composer =
| lyricist =
| producer =
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| title =
| next_title =
| next_year =
}}
}}


"'''The Saint Louis Blues'''" (or "'''St. Louis Blues'''") is a popular American song composed by [[W. C. Handy]] in the [[blues]] style and published in September 1914. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a [[pop music|pop song]] and remains a fundamental part of [[jazz]] musicians' repertoire. [[Benny Goodman]], [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Cab Calloway]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Bessie Smith]], [[Count Basie]], [[Glenn Miller]], [[Guy Lombardo]], and the [[Boston Pops Orchestra]] (under the directions of both [[Arthur Fiedler]] and [[Keith Lockhart]]) are among the artists who have recorded it. The song has been called "the jazzman's ''[[Hamlet]]''".<ref name="Stanfield2005">{{cite book |last=Stanfield |first=Peter |title=Body and Soul: Jazz and Blues in American Film, 1927–63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFk-Hqc4rnwC&pg=PA83 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2005 |access-date=12 April 2005 |pages=83– |isbn=978-0-252-02994-3}}</ref> Composer [[William Grant Still]] arranged a version of the song in 1916 while working with Handy.<ref name="CH-2021">{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Happy birthday, William Grant Still |url=https://celesteheadlee.com/happy-birthday-william-grant-still/ |date=2021 |work=Celeste Headlee |access-date=February 23, 2021}}</ref><ref name="UC-2000a">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Catherine Parson |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1h4nb0g0&chunk.id=d0e11020&toc.id=d0e10910&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress&anchor.id=JD_Page_310#X |title=William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions |publisher=University of California Press |year=2000 |location=Berkeley, CA |page=310}}</ref>{{Rp|310}}
"'''The Saint Louis Blues'''" (or "'''St. Louis Blues'''") is a popular American song composed by [[W. C. Handy]] in the [[blues]] style and published in September 1914. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a [[pop music|pop song]] and remains a fundamental part of [[jazz]] musicians' repertoire. [[Benny Goodman]], [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Cab Calloway]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Bessie Smith]], [[Billy "Uke" Carpenter]], [[Eartha Kitt]], [[Count Basie]], [[Glenn Miller]], [[Guy Lombardo]], [[Peanuts Hucko]], [[Art Tatum]], and the [[Boston Pops Orchestra]] (under the directions of both [[Arthur Fiedler]] and [[Keith Lockhart]]) are among the artists who have recorded it. The song has been called "the jazzman's ''[[Hamlet]]''".<ref name="Stanfield2005">{{cite book |last=Stanfield |first=Peter |title=Body and Soul: Jazz and Blues in American Film, 1927–63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFk-Hqc4rnwC&pg=PA83 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2005 |access-date=April 12, 2005 |pages=83– |isbn=978-0-252-02994-3}}</ref> Composer [[William Grant Still]] arranged a version of the song in 1916 while working with Handy.<ref name="UC-2000a">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Catherine Parson |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1h4nb0g0&chunk.id=d0e11020&toc.id=d0e10910&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress&anchor.id=JD_Page_310#X |title=William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=2000 |location=Berkeley, California |page=310}}</ref>


The 1925 version sung by Bessie Smith, with Louis Armstrong on cornet, was inducted into the [[List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (Q–Z)|Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 1993. The 1929 version by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (with [[Red Allen]]) was inducted in 2008.
The 1925 version sung by Bessie Smith, with Louis Armstrong on cornet, was inducted into the [[List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (Q–Z)|Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 1993. The 1929 version by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (with [[Red Allen]]) was inducted in 2008. The 1922 version by W.C. Handy and his Memphis Blues Band was selected by the [[Library of Congress]] for preservation in the [[National Recording Registry]] in 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=2023 National Recording Registry selections |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2023/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=April 12, 2023}}</ref>


==History==
==History==
Line 43: Line 30:
| type = music
| type = music
}}
}}
Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a woman on the streets of [[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]], distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented, "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song.<ref>Tom Morgan, [https://web.archive.org/web/20040408160812/http://bluesnet.hub.org/readings/st.louis.blues.html "St. Louis Blues: An American Classic"], ''Bluesnet'', April 8, 2004. Retrieved from web.archive.net May 28, 2018.</ref><ref name="Handy 1941 119">{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=119}}</ref> Handy's autobiography recounts his hearing the tune in St. Louis in 1892: "It had numerous one-line verses and they would sing it all night."<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=147}}</ref>
Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a woman on the streets of [[St. Louis]], Missouri, distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented, "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song.<ref name="Handy 1941 119">{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=119}}</ref> Handy's autobiography recounts his hearing the tune in St. Louis in 1892: "It had numerous one-line verses and they would sing it all night."<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=147}}</ref>
⚫
{{efn|The original published sheet music is available online from the United States [[Library of Congress]] in a searchable database of African-American music from [[Brown University]].<ref name="memory.loc.gov">{{cite web |title=American Memory from the Library of Congress – List All Collections |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/aasm:@field(TITLE+@od1(St++Louis+blues+) |website=Memory.loc.gov |access-date=December 30, 2015}}</ref><ref>Handy, W. C. (William Christopher), [https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:18423/ "The 'St. Louis blues'"] (1918). African American Sheet Music. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Retrieved May 28, 2018.</ref>}}

⚫
The song was a massive and enduring success. The original published sheet music is available online from the United States [[Library of Congress]] in a searchable database of African-American music from [[Brown University]].<ref name="memory.loc.gov">{{cite web |title=American Memory from the Library of Congress – List All Collections |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/aasm:@field(TITLE+@od1(St++Louis+blues+) |website=Memory.loc.gov |access-date=December 30, 2015}}</ref><ref>Handy, W. C. (William Christopher), [https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:18423/ "The 'St. Louis blues'"] (1918). African American Sheet Music. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Retrieved May 28, 2018.</ref>

The [[St. Louis Blues]] of the [[National Hockey League]] (NHL) are named after the song.


==Analysis==
==Analysis==
The form is unusual in that the verses are the now-familiar [[Jazz standard|standard]] [[twelve-bar blues]] in [[common time]] with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar [[Bridge (music)|bridge]] written in the [[Habanera (music)|habanera]] rhythm, which [[Jelly Roll Morton]] called the "[[Spanish tinge]]" and characterized by Handy as [[tango (music)|tango]].<ref name="Handy1941">{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|pp=99–100}}</ref> The tango-like rhythm is notated as a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note and two quarter notes, with no slurs or ties. It is played in the introduction and in the sixteen-measure bridge.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}
The form is unusual in that the verses are the now-familiar [[Jazz standard|standard]] [[twelve-bar blues]] in [[common time]] with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar [[Bridge (music)|bridge]] written in the [[Habanera (music)|habanera]] rhythm, which [[Jelly Roll Morton]] called the "[[Spanish tinge]]" and characterized by Handy as [[tango (music)|tango]].<ref name="Handy1941">{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|pp=99–100}}</ref>


{{block indent|<score sound="1">
{{block indent|<score sound="1">
Line 81: Line 65:


==Performances==
==Performances==
Writing about the first time "Saint Louis Blues" was played (1914),<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=305}}</ref> Handy noted that
Handy wrote about the first time "Saint Louis Blues" was played in 1914:<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=305}}</ref>
{{blockquote|The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of "Memphis Blues"{{nbsp}}... When "St Louis Blues" was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.<ref name="Handy1941" />}}
{{Blockquote|The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of "Memphis Blues"{{nbsp}}... When "St Louis Blues" was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.<ref name="Handy1941" />}}

⚫
Singer and actress [[Ethel Waters]] was the first woman to sing "Saint Louis Blues" in public.<ref name=britannica>{{cite web |last=Britannica |first=Encyclopedia |title=Ethel Waters: American Singer and Actress |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethel-Waters |website=www.britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=May 31, 2017 |access-date=May 28, 2018}}</ref> She said she learned it from [[Charles Anderson (vocalist)|Charles Anderson]] and featured it herself during a 1917 engagement in Baltimore.<ref name=britannica/><ref name="Freeland">{{cite web |last=Freeland |first=David |title=Behind the Song: "St. Louis Blues" |url=http://americansongwriter.com/2009/07/behind-the-song-st-louis-blues |website=American Songwriter |date=July 1, 2009 |access-date=October 28, 2016}}{{paywall}}</ref>


⚫
Singer and actress [[Ethel Waters]] was the first woman to sing "Saint Louis Blues" in public.<ref name=britannica>{{cite web |last=Britannica |first=Encyclopedia |title=Ethel Waters: American Singer and Actress |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethel-Waters |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=May 31, 2017 |access-date=May 28, 2018}}</ref> She said she learned it from [[Charles Anderson (vocalist)|Charles Anderson]] and featured it herself during a 1917 engagement in Baltimore.<ref name=britannica/><ref name="Freeland">{{cite web |last=Freeland |first=David |title=Behind the Song: "St. Louis Blues" |url=http://americansongwriter.com/2009/07/behind-the-song-st-louis-blues |website=American Songwriter |date=July 1, 2009 |access-date=October 28, 2016}}{{subscription required}}</ref> The film ''[[St. Louis Blues (1929 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'', from 1929, featured [[Bessie Smith]] singing the song.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last=Albertson |first=Chris |title=Bessie |url=https://archive.org/details/bessierevisedexp00albe |url-access=limited |publisher=Yale University Press |edition=revised |year=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bessierevisedexp00albe/page/n213 193]–194|isbn=9780300107562 }}</ref>
Researcher Guy Marco, in his ''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound in the United States'', stated that the first audio recording of "Saint Louis Blues" was by [[Al Bernard]] in July 1918 for [[Vocalion Records]]. However, the house band at [[Columbia Records]], directed by [[Charles A. Prince]], released an instrumental version in December 1915.


In 1998, "St. Louis Blues" was included on the album ''Gershwin's World'' by [[Herbie Hancock]] which featured [[Stevie Wonder]] on vocals. In 1999 at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, this recording won two Grammys. Stevie Wonder won the [[Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance|Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance]]. In the Composing and Arranging category, Herbie Hancock, Robert Sadin and Stevie Wonder, arrangers (Herbie Hancock) won the [[Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals|Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s)]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=41st Annual GRAMMY Awards |url=https://www.grammy.com/awards/41st-annual-grammy-awards |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=Grammy.com}}</ref>
The film ''[[St. Louis Blues (1929 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'', from 1929, featured [[Bessie Smith]] singing the song.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last=Albertson |first=Chris |title=Bessie |url=https://archive.org/details/bessierevisedexp00albe |url-access=limited |publisher=Yale University Press |edition=revised |year=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bessierevisedexp00albe/page/n213 193]–194}}</ref>


In an NPR article dated August 10, 2011 titled "Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues'" by Simon Rentner, the Gershwin - W.C. Handy connection is explained. "Composer George Gershwin borrowed W.C. Handy's themes for his own music, including for "Rhapsody in Blue," Gershwin's landmark work. Although the two musicians didn't know each other, Gershwin gave Handy a signed copy of his famous score with a note thanking Handy and acknowledging that his "early 'blues' songs are the forefathers of this work." [[Herbie Hancock]] and [[Stevie Wonder]] pay homage to Gershwin's admiration of Handy here" on Hancock's album, ''Gershwin's World''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2011/08/10/139377374/evolution-of-a-song-st-louis-blues|title=Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues'|website=Npr.org|access-date=May 1, 2024}}</ref>
==Other recorded versions==
{{Cleanup|section|reason=versions may not meet [[WP:SONGCOVER]]|date=March 2019}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Charles A. Prince|Prince's Orchestra]] (1916)<ref name=whitburn>{{cite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|author-link=Joel Whitburn|title=Pop Memories: 1890–1954|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit|url-access=registration|year=1986|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/584 584]}}</ref>
* [[Al Bernard]] (1919)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[Marion Harris]] (1920)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[Original Dixieland Jass Band]] (1921)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[W. C. Handy]] (1923)<ref name="Gioia">{{cite book |last=Gioia |first=Ted |title=The Jazz Standards |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |year=2012 |pages=356–357 |isbn=978-0-19-993739-4}}</ref>
⚫
* [[Bessie Smith]] with Louis Armstrong (1925)<ref name="Gioia" /><ref name="Russell">{{cite book |first=Tony|last=Russell |year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books |location=Dubai|page=12 |isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref>
* [[Fats Waller]] (1926)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Al Bernard]] as "John Bennett" (Madison, 1928)<ref name="Ginell">{{cite book|last1=Ginell|first1=Cary|title=Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing|date=1994|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=0-252-02041-3|pages=245–246}}</ref>
* [[Louis Armstrong]] (1929)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Cab Calloway]] (1930)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Rudy Vallée]] (1930)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[The Mills Brothers]] (1932)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[Benny Goodman]] (1936)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[Django Reinhardt]] (1937)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Guy Lombardo]] (1939)<ref name=whitburn/>
* [[Earl Hines]] (1940)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Dizzy Gillespie]] (1949)<ref name="Gioia" />
* Louis Armstrong – ''[[Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy]]'' (1954)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Gil Evans]] with Cannonball Adderley – ''[[New Bottle Old Wine]]'' (1958)<ref name="Gioia" />
* Dizzy Gillespie – ''Have Trumpet, Will Excite!'' (1959)<ref name="Excite">{{cite web |last=Lankford Jr. |first=Ronnie D. |title=Have Trumpet, Will Excite! |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/have-trumpet-will-excite!-mw0000004877 |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=17 May 2018}}</ref>
* [[Dave Brubeck]] – ''[[At Carnegie Hall (Dave Brubeck Quartet album)|At Carnegie Hall]]''(1963)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra]] – ''[[Monday Night]]'' (1968)<ref name="Gioia" />
* [[Eumir Deodato]] – ''Artistry'' (1974)<ref name="Deo">{{cite web |last=Ginell |first=Richard S. |title=Artistry |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/artistry-mw0000850362 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=17 May 2018}}</ref>
* [[George Wright (organist)|George Wright]] – ''Red Hot and Blue'' (1984)<ref>{{cite journal |last=DeLay |first=Tom |title=For the Records |journal=Theatre Organ |volume=27 |issue=1 |page=19 |date=January 1985 |issn=0040-5531}}</ref>
* [[Herbie Hancock]] with Stevie Wonder – ''[[Gershwin's World]]'' (1998)<ref name="Gioia" />
{{div col end}}


==See also==
==See also==
Line 124: Line 78:


==Notes==
==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}
{{Notelist}}


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book |last=Handy |first=W.C. |author-link=W. C. Handy |editor1-last=Bontemps |editor1-first=Arna Wendell |editor1-link=Arna Bontemps |title=Father of the Blues: An Autobiography |url=https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York City |year=1941}}.
*{{cite book |last=Handy |first=W.C. |author-link=W. C. Handy |editor1-last=Bontemps |editor1-first=Arna Wendell |editor1-link=Arna Bontemps |title=Father of the Blues: An Autobiography |url=https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York City |year=1941}}.


==External links==
==External links==
Line 150: Line 105:
[[Category:LaVern Baker songs]]
[[Category:LaVern Baker songs]]
[[Category:1910s jazz standards]]
[[Category:1910s jazz standards]]
[[Category:Songs about cities in the United States]]
[[Category:Songs with music by W. C. Handy]]
[[Category:Songs with music by W. C. Handy]]
[[Category:Benny Goodman songs]]
[[Category:Benny Goodman songs]]
Line 159: Line 113:
[[Category:Mildred Bailey songs]]
[[Category:Mildred Bailey songs]]
[[Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients]]
[[Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients]]
[[Category:Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)]]
[[Category:Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals]]
[[Category:Jazz compositions in G major]]
[[Category:Jazz compositions in G major]]
[[Category:Songs about St. Louis]]
[[Category:Songs about St. Louis]]
[[Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings]]

Latest revision as of 03:08, 2 January 2025

"The Saint Louis Blues"
Sheet music cover
Single by Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, cornet
B-side"Cold in Hand Blues"
PublishedSeptember 11, 1914 (1914-09-11)[1]
ReleasedApril 10, 1925 (1925-04-10)
RecordedJanuary 14, 1925[2]
GenreBlues
Length2:46
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)W. C. Handy

"The Saint Louis Blues" (or "St. Louis Blues") is a popular American song composed by W. C. Handy in the blues style and published in September 1914. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song and remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire. Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, Bessie Smith, Billy "Uke" Carpenter, Eartha Kitt, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, Peanuts Hucko, Art Tatum, and the Boston Pops Orchestra (under the directions of both Arthur Fiedler and Keith Lockhart) are among the artists who have recorded it. The song has been called "the jazzman's Hamlet".[3] Composer William Grant Still arranged a version of the song in 1916 while working with Handy.[4]

The 1925 version sung by Bessie Smith, with Louis Armstrong on cornet, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993. The 1929 version by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (with Red Allen) was inducted in 2008. The 1922 version by W.C. Handy and his Memphis Blues Band was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023.[5]

History

[edit]
Saint Louis Blues (1921)
The Original Dixieland Jass Band's 1921 recording of "Saint Louis Blues"
Saint Louis Blues (2013)
Tenor saxophone playing nine bars
Problems playing these files? See media help.

Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a woman on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented, "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song.[6] Handy's autobiography recounts his hearing the tune in St. Louis in 1892: "It had numerous one-line verses and they would sing it all night."[7] [a]

Analysis

[edit]

The form is unusual in that the verses are the now-familiar standard twelve-bar blues in common time with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar bridge written in the habanera rhythm, which Jelly Roll Morton called the "Spanish tinge" and characterized by Handy as tango.[10]

{ \new PianoStaff << \new Staff << \relative c'' { \clef treble \key g \major \time 2/2 \partial4. d8 d d <g, bes d>8 <g~ bes~ d~>4. <g bes d>2 r8 <g c> c cis <g d'> <g bes>4. <d~ fis~ a~>1 <d~ fis~ a~>2 <d fis a>8 <fis a c> <fis a c> <fis a c> } >> \new Staff << \relative c { \clef bass \key g \major \time 2/2 \partial4. r8 r4 g4. g'8 <bes d>4 g <c, es g c>1 d,4. fis'8 <a c>4 fis <d, d'>4. fis'8 <a c>4 fis } >> >> }

While blues often became simple and repetitive in form, "Saint Louis Blues" has multiple complementary and contrasting strains, similar to classic ragtime compositions.[6] Handy said his objective in writing the song was "to combine ragtime syncopation with a real melody in the spiritual tradition."[11] T-Bone Walker commented about the song, "You can't dress up the blues ... I'm not saying that 'Saint Louis Blues' isn't fine music you understand. But it just isn't blues".[12]

Performances

[edit]

Handy wrote about the first time "Saint Louis Blues" was played in 1914:[13]

The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of "Memphis Blues" ... When "St Louis Blues" was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.[10]

Singer and actress Ethel Waters was the first woman to sing "Saint Louis Blues" in public.[14] She said she learned it from Charles Anderson and featured it herself during a 1917 engagement in Baltimore.[14][15] The film St. Louis Blues, from 1929, featured Bessie Smith singing the song.[16]

In 1998, "St. Louis Blues" was included on the album Gershwin's World by Herbie Hancock which featured Stevie Wonder on vocals. In 1999 at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, this recording won two Grammys. Stevie Wonder won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. In the Composing and Arranging category, Herbie Hancock, Robert Sadin and Stevie Wonder, arrangers (Herbie Hancock) won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s).[17]

In an NPR article dated August 10, 2011 titled "Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues'" by Simon Rentner, the Gershwin - W.C. Handy connection is explained. "Composer George Gershwin borrowed W.C. Handy's themes for his own music, including for "Rhapsody in Blue," Gershwin's landmark work. Although the two musicians didn't know each other, Gershwin gave Handy a signed copy of his famous score with a note thanking Handy and acknowledging that his "early 'blues' songs are the forefathers of this work." Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder pay homage to Gershwin's admiration of Handy here" on Hancock's album, Gershwin's World.[18]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The original published sheet music is available online from the United States Library of Congress in a searchable database of African-American music from Brown University.[8][9]

References

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  1. ^ Library of Congress. Copyright Office. (1914). Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1914 Musical Compositions Last Half of 1914 New Series Vol 9 Part 2. U.S. Copyright Office. U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  2. ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 12. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  3. ^ Stanfield, Peter (2005). Body and Soul: Jazz and Blues in American Film, 1927–63. University of Illinois Press. pp. 83–. ISBN 978-0-252-02994-3. Retrieved April 12, 2005.
  4. ^ Smith, Catherine Parson (2000). William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 310.
  5. ^ "2023 National Recording Registry selections". Library of Congress. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Handy 1941, p. 119
  7. ^ Handy 1941, p. 147
  8. ^ "American Memory from the Library of Congress – List All Collections". Memory.loc.gov. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  9. ^ Handy, W. C. (William Christopher), "The 'St. Louis blues'" (1918). African American Sheet Music. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Handy 1941, pp. 99–100
  11. ^ Handy 1941, p. 120
  12. ^ Oakley, Giles (1997). The Devil's Music. Da Capo Press. p. 42–43. ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
  13. ^ Handy 1941, p. 305
  14. ^ a b Britannica, Encyclopedia (May 31, 2017). "Ethel Waters: American Singer and Actress". Britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  15. ^ Freeland, David (July 1, 2009). "Behind the Song: "St. Louis Blues"". American Songwriter. Retrieved October 28, 2016.(subscription required)
  16. ^ Albertson, Chris (2003). Bessie (revised ed.). Yale University Press. pp. 193–194. ISBN 9780300107562.
  17. ^ "41st Annual GRAMMY Awards". Grammy.com. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  18. ^ "Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues'". Npr.org. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
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